Social media as marketing strategy impacts customer behavior, and the strategies that businesses might employ to exploit it to their advantage have already been sufficiently discussed all over the web.

Even though there is a wealth of information on the internet, many businesses still find it difficult to comprehend what “social media marketing” is and how it works.

According to the Datar portal, analysis from Kepios shows that there will be 4.74 billion social media users around the world in 2023, equating to 59.3 percent of the total global population.

So, it is critical for marketers or business owners to use social media networks to achieve outstanding results for their businesses.

That’s why today I’m going to share an ultimate, comprehensive strategy with you that will make social media marketing simple for you and help you create successful marketing plans for your business.

So, let’s begin from the basics because whenever we learn something, we must look at the concept from the bottom and up for a better understanding of the concept.

Social Media & Marketing

Social media is a network of 4.74 billion users that just love to share, seek, and create information, ideas, and interests in virtual communities, which typically feature user-generated content and personalized profiles.

At first, it started as a way to connect with friends and family. Then businesses gradually adopted it as a way to reach out to their clients by utilizing a well-liked new communication channel.

On the other hand, marketing is all about sending the right message to the right person at the right time.

It is not about selling at all; rather, it is about keeping a customer happy and communicating with them so that they can remain a customer for life. (You can read about marketing later here).

The ability to connect and share information with anyone on Earth, or with many people at once, is the power of social media.

In general, connections, interactions, and user data are the main things that make social media so potent for marketing.

What is social media marketing?

Social media marketing is a type of digital marketing that makes use of the strength of well-known social media platforms to meet your branding and marketing objectives.

Social media as marketing strategy includes:

• Maintaining and optimizing your profiles.
• You are posting pictures, videos, stories, and live videos that represent your brand and attract a relevant audience.
• Responding to comments, shares, and likes and monitoring your reputation.
• Following others and engaging with followers, customers, and influencers to build a community around your brand.
• Social media marketing also includes paid social media advertising, where you can pay to have your business appear in front of large volumes of highly targeted users.  

The Evolution of Social Networks

Around 19 years ago, Myspace.com was the first social network to be launched.

And when they launched it, creating websites for businesses on their domain wasn’t easy.

Communicating with their audiences via email marketing and SMS tools was also not easy.

So, what happened was that businesses created pages on Myspace.com, and other Myspace users followed them for updates.

Then Facebook came along and made a better product (because Myspace was not loading so fast, and it was cumbersome to use. Its UI/UX wasn’t so good, and when you don’t have a good user experience for a particular website then the product might not take off.)

They started with the focus on connecting people first; when Facebook started, it was exclusive to universities, and within universities, whenever people wanted to connect with other students, they used Facebook.

And then they started expanding it to more universities and colleges, and after some time, they finally opened it to the public.

There are more than 2.96 billion people on Facebook right now. (And that’s like 1/3rd the population of the world.)

Now, businesses are starting to create pages on Facebook. A lot of content creators and publications post content on Facebook. (Which attracted users.)

In this way, social media has evolved over time.

And it keeps changing continuously due to the introduction of several new platforms and continuous changes within the platforms.

The collapse of Social Media Networks

A lot of businesses post on Facebook and try to get attention and business from it.

But the biggest problem is that as more and more businesses started using Facebook, the reach for every page went down.

So, imagine this scenario: you have a web page, and you are posting content on it. And let’s say there are only 1000 users on the social media platform, and there are only 10 businesses posting content on the web pages.

So, all 1000 users follow all 10 businesses, and whenever they post, it reaches all of them. 

But suppose that while the number of users on this platform isn’t increasing, the number of businesses that publish pages and updates and the frequency with which they are updated is increasing rapidly.

As a result, the proportion of business pages created for these users is increasing.

So, what will happen if more businesses go ahead and post on Facebook?

The reach that each business initially had will undoubtedly decrease.

Because you have a limited number of people using Facebook, and they have a limited amount of time to spend on Facebook.

So, this is the problem with social media that most businesses and creators are facing right now.

The majority of companies and creators currently observe that the organic reach of their Facebook pages is almost dead.

If you post an update on your page, it will only reach about 2% of your followers.

You have no control over it because, even though they are your followers and fans, they aren’t your users. They are Facebook users.

And as a creator, you can see that Facebook now charges money to reach your audiences. (Post Boosts options on pages) 

Businesses, ironically, initially assist Facebook in increasing its user base.

Every social network has members. And these members are not your users, even if you can access them.

If you go back two decades, every social media platform, starting with Orkut, has followed the same path.

You are not going to get the same amount of reach that you used to get in the initial stages.

And the reach keeps going down as a particular social media platform becomes popular and gets too crowded; then your post’s reach goes down because if your updates get more reach on a particular platform, then it ultimately becomes more popular and attracts other businesses to use it. 

And it’s all the same with Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Foursquare, and so on.

Every social platform has its peak, and when it gets popular, more and more people, businesses, and creators flock there, making it too crowded and busy.

And businesses that are already using it get an early mover advantage, and then the secret is out, and everybody is like:

“Hey, Instagram is the next best thing, and you are getting more reach.” 

As the crowd increases, the engagement goes down, and over time, people are also getting bored and shifting to another new platform, so this entire process has started again like that with every new viral platform.

That is why Facebook acquired Instagram—it knew that the amount of engagement on Facebook was going down.

After some time, they also acquired WhatsApp, knowing that mobile messaging would have a stronghold with an increasing number of mobile users over time.

The Ultimate Social Media Marketing Strategy 

So, the only solution for long-term security, stability, and growth for your business is “to own your social network and have control and power.”

And in this way, you can prevent any collapse of social networks.

Owning a social network doesn’t mean you have to create software to host one. You don’t need a big software platform like Facebook to host your network.

You just need a bunch of tools and methods to manage your network so that you have control and power over it.

Own Your Network

When you own your network, you can use social media to tap into their audiences, but you cannot build a dream home on a rented patch; the landowner might ask you to leave someday or keep increasing the rent.

Most of the creators build their audiences on social media groups, spending too much time there, creating engagement, and then running into trouble when engagement drops.

And it feels more like an obligation than an asset.

Therefore, most of the “social media tips” are temporary. You are here because you want to build your business for the long term. (You might want it to outlive you)

So, when you think for the long term, temporary tips and tactics going around the web will not distract you anymore.

It’s just like an investment scenario: 

Warren Buffet does not run around with the most recent stock tricks and share recommendations. He just makes long-term investments in stable businesses and patiently awaits the rise of those investments over time.

Hence, short-term tricks and tips for increasing traffic are a waste of time and energy. Instead, you can focus on building your network, your tribe, and your club.

Tribes built on external websites cannot be sustained for a long time because you don’t have control and power over your audience there.

So don’t be at the mercy of another platform to have access to your audience.

So always control access to your audience, which means that you primarily need the names and emails of your users to set control.

And after getting their names and emails, they become your leads, from which you can send them to your Facebook groups, telegram groups, or any other particular platform.

So, make your leads a doorway to your network, and always have free access to them with full power and control.

Control Your Network and Have Power

If you depend on social networks for traffic, leads, and customers, then you are not in control of your future or the future of your business.

If you want to control your future, then you have to control access to your audience.

If someone else is standing between you and your audience, then you are not in control; you are at the mercy of a middleman who also has access to your audience.

Social media networks give you leads and customers. Take them and add them to your network.

So don’t depend on social media networks because their algorithms keep changing.

Several startups that built their business models based on social media traffic died because of the algorithm change. (Ex. Cure Joy)

We can see everyone is running behind the latest platforms, which gives them traffic because they don’t think long-term and get distracted by short-term tips and tricks.

First, it was Myspace, then Orkut, then Google+, then Foursquare, then Facebook, then Instagram, then Snapchat, and tomorrow there will be something new.

Every network will come and go, and engagement and reach will always go down after some period of time.

Also, people are using fewer social media over time because there are niche networks that provide better quality content and engagement. (For example, LinkedIn.) 

As a result, you should never rely on social media for traffic; the only way to get traffic is to build your network, blog, platform, and, most importantly, email list, which connects all of these things.

And when you have your tribe, your network, loyal customers, and a fan base, you will be able to stand out from the competition.

Nurturing Your Network

You must establish a vibe and a culture in your network. And make your tribe a hub of information for your network. 

You can engage communities by offering rewards and incentives. You can run polls and quizzes to get more engagement in your tribe.

Well, the internet is a two-way communication medium; your tribe interacts not only with you but also with one another.

So, ask people what they want and make a product or service to empower them.

Your tribe gives you signals about what the market wants and ultimately gives you the best product fit for the market, so build one.

When you start your network, it will not be very big, but your show must go on. 

Even if you have a small following, you need to nurture your followers. Without nurturing them, they aren’t going to bring in new followers to your network.

Just remember, the best marketing is “word of mouth.” 

Once people come into your network, nurture them by providing value, and then they will bring others into your network.

Do not focus on fame and popularity. You don’t want people’s attention.

because all attention is meaningless unless your product is sold. 

So, focus on getting results for your tribe, and by doing this, you will grow slowly but strongly and have a tribe around you.

Create Your Own Ecosystem

Creating a market ecosystem is the best way to gain control of your business and future.

According to Wikipedia, an “ecosystem” is defined as “a biological system of all the creatures and the physical environment within which they interact.”

A digital ecosystem is one in which you have a set of products (a physical environment) and a community of people who interact with each other and gain value from each other using your product as the foundation.

If you don’t have your own ecosystem, you’re at the mercy of someone else’s.

Apple has created its own ecosystem. The iMac, iPhone, MacBook Pro, iPad, Air Pods, and Apple Watch are all hardware. 

Then they have services like the Apple Store, iTunes, Apple Fitness, Apple TV, and so on. And their products sell the services, and the services sell the products.

This is how an ecosystem works. That’s how you have to form your fan base around your ecosystem.

When you create your ecosystem, your blog, your tribe, and your courses will work in sync to complement each other, and everything will be powered by the email list at the heart of it. (For understanding, you can refer to the Content Empire Blueprint.)

Pro tip:

If you have a tribe, then you have to share your secrets without holding back. There is no other way.

Sharing secrets doesn’t mean that your competition will rise.

Believe me, nobody is going to copy you. It’s not all about ideas or secrets.

It’s all about the execution and your marketing positioning.

Conclusion

Finally, if you want to use the best social media strategy, you should become an advertiser in it and use it for networking purposes and to build your tribe.

You have to become the central force in your network for a long period of time. 

Your tribe will follow you, respect you, and get inspired by you. You need to grow as an inspiring person in all areas of your life: health, fitness, relationships, and your career.

Nobody becomes successful because they discover a secret. Success needs consistency, dedication, and hard work.

So, plan ahead of time, build for the future, and never be afraid to share your secrets with your tribe.

There are some suggestions to implement in your social media as marketing strategy. These are:

• Automate your engagement with your audience.
• Leverage Social media websites for tapping their audience into your Funnel.
• Build an engaging tribe and nurture it through funnels.
• Get 100 true fans in your tribe and then grow further.
• Be a part of other tribes to bring some DNA into your tribe.
• Host your tribes on WhatsApp and Telegram groups.

So, launch your social media marketing campaigns with the mindset of long-term growth for your business and get out of the rat race, which only benefits the short term.

And being different is the only way to compete in the market over the long term.

I also like to know your views on comments, so please share your views and learnings from this post. I will reply to all of your comments.

Cheers

Manthan Sharma

(P.S.: You can get access to the Content Empire blueprint here.)

Some FAQS:

You may have additional questions, so here are some that are being addressed:

Is social media marketing important?

Social media marketing helps businesses build tribes and manage their communities well. Businesses should approach social media marketing through the lens of networking and tribe building.

Is social media marketing effective in the B2B phase?

Social media helps businesses nurture leads and identify prospective customers. Then position their products and services to appeal to their prospects while building relationships with them.

Does social media marketing increase sales?

Promoting your brand and building trust with the audience through social media can drive an increase in sales over time. You can also try social media influencer marketing to increase your sales.

Does social media marketing improve business performance?

Social media marketing builds brand recognition for a business and provides a platform for engagement with their audience. It improves business performance by providing them with the benefits of networking and customer data.

Does social media marketing work?

Yes, social media marketing works very well if you approach it through the lens of networking and tribe building. You must use paid advertising in social media to get more leads and then nourish them through high-value engagement in your network.